Business reward upgrade

[DavidWest]

Apologies if this has been covered however I haven't been able to find enough information.

I want to use FF points to upgrade to business class from SYD/MEL to PEK. The flexi flights are coded VA but operated by SQ. Does this mean that I cannot use velocity points for an upgrade?

If this is the case then I can transfer my points to mt Kris account, however I cannot see if their are awards upgrades available until after I've booked.

Is there a function to check if they're available before I transfer 150K points at the reduced conversion rate?

 

[Jack_OC]

I don't think you can upgrade a VA coded flight on SQ metal with either Velocity or Krisflyer points.

However, if you haven't booked already, I would suggest you might be better booking an outright business award flight with SQ. A one way business saver award from MEL-SIN-PEK costs 61,625 Krisflyer points plus ~$450. So a return would cost 160,225 Velocity points (123,250 x 1.3) plus $900. You can check online whether there is availability on your chosen dates/times via the SQ website. Just log into your Krisflyer account and search for award flights - it doesn't matter what your KF balance is, it shows availability even if you don't have enough miles to book.

 

[DavidWest]

I don't think you can upgrade a VA coded flight on SQ metal with either Velocity or Krisflyer points.

However, if you haven't booked already, I would suggest you might be better booking an outright business award flight with SQ. A one way business saver award from MEL-SIN-PEK costs 61,625 Krisflyer points plus ~$450. So a return would cost 160,225 Velocity points (123,250 x 1.3) plus $900. You can check online whether there is availability on your chosen dates/times via the SQ website. Just log into your Krisflyer account and search for award flights - it doesn't matter what your KF balance is, it shows availability even if you don't have enough miles to book.

Thanks for your reply Jack.

I did consider that option, however I don't have enough velocity points. To maximize my point usage i'd prefer to buy a return flexi fare with SQ and use 45K Kris points to upgrade to business each way.

Is this possible if award flights are available? Im making the assumption that awards flights can also be award upgrades. Is this the case?

After further investigation I believe i must book the flights first and then attempt to upgrade through the 'Manage my booking' function in Kris. The risk is that they are not available for upgrade.

 

[scwappy]

Maybe ask this in SQ forum as one of the gurus their may well know the answer to this.

 

[Jack_OC]

Thanks for your reply Jack.

I did consider that option, however I don't have enough velocity points. To maximize my point usage i'd prefer to buy a return flexi fare with SQ and use 45K Kris points to upgrade to business each way.

Is this possible if award flights are available? Im making the assumption that awards flights can also be award upgrades. Is this the case?

After further investigation I believe i must book the flights first and then attempt to upgrade through the 'Manage my booking' function in Kris. The risk is that they are not available for upgrade.

I'm afraid I have no experience of upgrades with SQ - just outright award tickets. As someone else suggested, if you post that question in the SQ section of this forum someone should be able to help.

For what it's worth, in case you can't make the upgrade work, you can buy extra KrisFlyer miles for US 4c per mile. It's not a great option if you need a lot of extra points, but it is if you're just a few thousand short of what you need. For example, you indicated that you have 150k Velocity points, which would get you 115,000 KF miles. You'd only have to buy about 6,000 extra for the return business award, which would cost USD$240.

The Flexi fare plus an upgrade would require fewer points, and I'm guessing a similar or maybe even lower amount of cash? But as I said, if you can't make that work, this is another option.